Obama Car Czars To Visit Detroit To Learn About Industry

Henry Blodget

Mar. 6, 2009, 7:25 AM

Well, thank heavens. We'd hate to have the men charged with saving our auto industry not be well prepared.

Bloomberg: President Barack Obama's chief auto advisers, Ronald Bloom and Steven Rattner, plan a one-day trip to Detroit next week to meet with executives at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, people familiar with the matter said.

U.S. Treasury officials Rattner and Bloom, advisers to Obama's auto task force and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, plan to see some of the vehicles and technology under development, said the people, who asked not to be named because the meetings are private.

The trip follows two weeks of meetings with auto executives, suppliers, analysts and others as they review the two carmakers' plans to keep $17.4 billion in loans and borrow as much as $21.6 billion more to survive. GM and Chrysler executives met with the committee last week in Washington to discuss progress.